HOLLYWOOD - Even with her au courant designer outfits - her dog Bruiser is always in coordinated attire - Elle Woods, the irrepressible heroine played by Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde 2: Red White & Blonde, is steeped in the tradition of the not-so-dumb blondes of the 1930s, such as Jean Harlow and Carole Lombard.
Like the blond-haired characters created by Harlow, Lombard and Barbara Stanwyck in such films as Dinner at Eight, My Man Godfrey and The Lady Eve, Elle is the catalyst of both Legally Blonde movies. Because of her trendy outfits, blond hair and little-girl voice, she is often mistaken for a living Barbie doll. But she knows who she is and what she wants, and although she has moments of self-doubt, her anxieties are short-lived because of her strong determination.
In the new film, not only does Elle find time to plan her wedding and change the lives of several lonely people, but she also takes on the bureaucracy in Washington and gets a bill through Congress to stop animal testing by cosmetics companies.
Film historian Cari Beauchamp says the first film - a surprise summer hit two years ago - had a solid feminist agenda. "Her priorities are so clear," Beauchamp says. "There are self-worth issues. Women are taking care of women. Women who are friends are really important to each other, and they have to love each other first. All of that with this veneer of lip gloss and the Guccis and last year's Prada."
Blondes - smart, dumb and otherwise - have, so to speak, deep roots in movie history. The first true "blonde" character in movies, says Beauchamp, was actually a brunet - Gloria Swanson - in the Cecil B. DeMille sex comedies Male and Female and The Affairs of Anatole, made in the late teens and early '20s. "It was the end of the war, and the Jazz Age is just starting," Beauchamp says. "Prohibition is coming in. In terms of the film, she was the first full-blooded blonde character."
Writer Anita Loos added a certain va-va-voom to the blonde persona in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, her 1925 best seller that followed Lorelei Lee, a blonde who "usually gets what she wants" and prefers diamonds to kisses. Lorelei was brought to life by Carol Channing on stage in the late '40s and by Marilyn Monroe in the 1953 film. Just like Elle, everybody treats Lorelei "like a dummy," Beauchamp says. "But she's as smart as a whip. She's the ditzy blonde who knows exactly what she's doing."
